Living with Floods sets out to explore the 1998 deluge in Bangladesh, one that has been described as the worst flood in this century. It seeks to explain the deluge by way of reflecting on the experiential aspect of the affected millions, including that of the writers. There are altogether twenty-five articles, divided broadly into three sections, namely ‘survival strategies,’ ‘sustenance and work opportunities,’ and ‘civic response.’ The three sections, however, mainly focus on the experiential aspect of the flood-affected people in alternatives, that is, practices that are ingeniously and indigenously arrived at but not necessarily out of the ordinary. Such practices of the flood-affected people, if properly known and universally disseminated, could prove handy if another flood of similar magnitude comes to play havoc in the lives of the people of Bangladesh.

Imtiaz Ahmed teaches International Relations at the University of Dhaka and is Executive Director, Centre for Alternatives. He is also the Editor of Theoretical Perspectives: A Journal of Social Sciences and Arts. Aside from numerous articles in national and international journals and edited volumes, his publications include State and Foreign Policy: India’s Role in South Asia (Delhi: Vikas, 1993); The Efficacy of the Nation State in South Asia: A Post-nationalist Critique (Colombo: ICES, 1998); and The Construction of Diaspora: South Asians Living in Japan (Dhaka: UPQ (forthcoming).